Any one remember Coco Marsh chocolate syrup with the bear on the jar? Even had a dispenser to pour it from. I loved it even better than Bosco, and I loved Bosco!! Coco Marsh was advertised on an old kids show here in New Jersey that ran in the very early 50's called Pat Michael's Magic Cottage. I heard about Coco Marsh every day and had to have it! Any one else remember? And when did they stop selling that great syrup? Even Bosco is seen only rarely these days...and I'm not even sure its the same taste< Sure miss those old syrups that gave the can of Hershey's a run for their money!!!!!

I think Cocoa-Marsh/Bosco was like Coke/Pepsi- you were either a fan of one or the other. Ours was a Cocoa Marsh family (maybe it was cheaper?)- we even would get the Strawberry flavor occasionally. I remember *drinking* it, but don't really remember how it was different that Bosco (if at all). Even as a kid, I was into "old fashioned" stuff, and eventually gravitated to Ovaltine for my chocolate milk fix. (I also liked Black Jack gum, Grape Nuts, Moxie and local non-cola soda pops.)

Indeed I do remember CocoMarsh! My Girl Scout troop even toured the factory (somewhere in Westchester County ~ I grew up in Fairfield County, so my recollection is that it was "across the border). I thought the animal in question was a lion, however...

Oh man, I can remember the jingle: (sung to something like "Frog Went a'Courtin'"

CocoMarsh brings you lots of fun!Yummy, yum, yummy, yum, yum!CocoMarsh brings you lots of fun!The choc'late flavor's best by far ~An exciting new gift in a large size jar!CocoMarsh brings you lots of fun!

Taylor-Reed Corporation made Cocoa Marsh. They also made Q-T Instant Frosting. We used to have friends in Glenbrook, CT, a neighborhood of Stamford. They often talked about Taylor-Reed, and remember them saying something about the company once was in Mamaroneck, NY in Westchester County. There is a street adjacent to the New Haven railraod tracks in Glenbrook still called Taylot Reed Place.

I was in Glenbrook, CT today, so I just had to have a look at what is on Taylor Reed Drive today. There is what could have a food manufacturing plant at one time behind a chain link fence at the end of the street. It is now occupied by City Carting & Recycling, which looks like a refuse collector and scrap dealer. They are right along the main Boston/New York Amtrak right of way.

I researched Taylor-Reed some years ago, and seem to recall it went out of business around 1977, certainly by 1981. It was definitely in Stamford (by Glenbrook station, on the New Canaan spur line) in the 1950s and 60s; if it was in Mamaroneck that must have been back in the 40s or before. I think there was a billboard on top of the plant, with the Cocoa Marsh lion, and you could see it when driving across the Cortland Ave. bridge over the tracks.

My impression is that Taylor-Reed was just a lazy company. It seemed to have been one of those closely held manufacturers that flourished during the War, making rations and institutional food, but didn't like the complications of the consumer market. They had a superior product in Cocoa Marsh, one that hugely outsold Bosco wherever it was available, but they couldn't or wouldn't go national. They didn't want to spend money on real advertising, preferring cartoon-show pitches and in-store promotions. Similarly, they had E-Z Pop popcorn for years and years before rival Jiffy Pop launched a massive campaign in the early 60s. E-Z Pop was identical, but because it didn't have TV ads, it looked like Brand X copycat product when you saw it in the supermarket.

CHARLES M. D. REED Charles M. D. Reed, 97, formerly of Stuart, FL., died Friday December 12, 2008 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in Brattleboro, VT. He was born on February 14, 1911, the son of the late William E. and Emma L. DuPuy Reed in New York, NY. He received his early education from The Collegiate School and Andover Academy, and later matriculated at Yale University where he sang with the Whiffenpoo fs of 1933. He formed the Taylor-Reed Corporation, a food manufactur ing enterprise, and worked as the joint owner operator along with Malcolm P. Taylor for 26 years. He was a member of the United States Civil Air Patrol during the second world war. He enjoyed music, sports, flying, boating, and his family. Mr. Reed is survived by two sons Abijah Reed of Putney, VT, William Reed of Keene Valley, NY, a daughter Anne Prager of Putney, VT, eight grand children: Leslie Reed, Jennifer Reed, Adam Reed, Noah Reed, Amy Storrow, John Storrow, Matthew Reed, Amanda Reed, five great grandchildre n, and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by three wives: Mary Lord, Vivian Intemann, and Helen Marie Collins, a brother William Reed, and three sisters Eleanor Reed, Louise Rhinelander, and Mary Bobbitt. Funeral services are to be private, and a committal will be held at a date to be announced. There will be no calling hours. The family would appreciate contributions to Hospice in lieu of flowers. Arrangeme nts are under the care of the Ker Westerlund Funeral Home 57 High St. Brattleboro, VT, 05301

I don't recall ever having Cocoa Marsh as a kid ( ours was a Nestle's Quik household ), but I remember seeing their TV commercials frequently here in the Chicago area. I still run into Bosco occasionally in supermarkets.

Cocoa Marsh seems to have been distributed only in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. It primarily advertised in the New York TV market. It was also available in the Philadelphia (and probably Baltimore/DC) markets, but didn't get the promotion. If some big Midwestern food company had wanted to snap it up, Taylor and Reed would have gladly sold, and Cocoa Marsh would still be with us. But upper-class New Englanders probably had little passion for a low-rent, messy business like food products (that's just a personal guess).

A few comments - tell me if you agree. I believe the street you mentioned is spelled Courtland Ave vice Cortland Ave. That is certainly the area I visited last year.

If you Google Taylor Reed Mamaroneck, you get a few hits, with text indicating they were still there right after World War II.

About that sugar packet, I don't think that type face was used in World War II. To me, it looks more like the packaging I saw in the military's emergency meals kits from the early 70's. Remember, there are US troops in Japan to this day. The building I think was Taylor-Reed's production plant looks like 1950's architecture.

Please do tell us more about this company as you uncover more history.

EDIT: I think the address of the company was 61 Taylor Reed Place. Can you confirm this?

Someone posted this to a comment to an article from the Stanmford Advocate: "Filmed for the most part at West Beach. Another familiar spot - what was long known as K's Market on High Ridge Road - now Fusaro's Market. "Blood" in the film was actually chocolate syrup made by the then local Cocoa-Marsh plant on Taylor Reed Place in Glenbrook, now part of City Carting. It's always rated among the worst films ever made. Some honor." From:http://www.topix.com/forum/source/stamford-advocate/TB77GOGC36V1SELME#comments

David and others--thanks, I'm glad everyone's wide-awake on this! Wow. I asked a friend with Wikipedia savvy to put up a Taylor-Reed page based on all these things.

Comments:

1. The street with the bridge over the New Haven tracks is indeed spelled Courtland Ave, as I saw on Googlemaps right after I posted that. Courtland must be one of the oldest roads in the area, as it connects the the road that connects the Boston Post Road (and Exit 9, Connecticut Turnpike) with the central business district of Glenbrook proper, a few blocks north and east of the Taylor-Reed plant.

3. "Taylor Reed Place" (formerly Drive) is just the city's designation for what was the company's driveway into the parking lot. It was not a public road in T-R days.

4. T-R was indeed originally headquartered near Taylor's home in Mamaroneck, NY when founded in 1939, according to his obit. Possibly they kept executive offices there a while longer. I would not give too much credence to the following note, c. 1948, in the Truman Ingalls Family Record (one of those Google cites) since it describes an "executive" who lives 3000 miles from his office:

[<font][Lewis Hyde] is at present an executive of the Taylor Reed Corporation of Mamaroneck, N. Y., and lives in Pasadena, California.

5. Interesting that the sugar pack strikes one as very 70's. It uses mainly Century Gothic, a font that goes back at least to the 1920s, and which was very popular in the 20s and 30s and seldom used after WW2. The New York Subway signage used Century Gothic until it was replaced by Helvetica. I think the Monopoly game uses Century Gothic, too. SUGAR is in some other 'condensed bold grotesque' font. Of course I could be wrong...maybe T-R was still in the rations business in 1970. I took the eBay WW2 provenance at face value.

6. Glad to hear that Cocoa Marsh was big in Chicago. I'm curious--was it mostly promoted on kiddy shows, or does anyone recall advertising in the Chicago market? I've seen print ads in Life for Cocoa Marsh but only in the immediate postwar era (1946).

Further type font notes: The SUGAR on the pack is probably News Gothic. News Gothic was the font used for most NYC subway signage (along with some Century Gothic). The point is that it's old, old stuff, and not likely to be on a pack printed in the 60s or 70s.

I haven't heard of Cocoa Marsh in ages, I used to see advertisements for it as a kid watching WRGB from Schectady, NY. I remember the pump was a big deal. Never had it though, like an earlier poster, Nestle Quik was the additive that ended up in the grocery cart. Not sure if I even saw it in the stores in the Mid Hudson Valley, but remember one of those syrup products that was called a "milk amplifier" which tickled me as I was starting to play electric guitar.

I remember Cocoa Marsh being the sponsor of a kid's show I used to watch with Claude Kirshner and Clownie. Can anyone remember the name of the show? I can't remember a single thing about that show other than the Cocoa Marsh ads.

I remember Cocoa Marsh being the sponsor of a kid's show I used to watch with Claude Kirshner and Clownie. Can anyone remember the name of the show? I can't remember a single thing about that show other than the Cocoa Marsh ads.

The show was called Super Circus and Claude Kirschner was the ringmaster.

I remember Cocoa Marsh being the sponsor of a kid's show I used to watch with Claude Kirshner and Clownie. Can anyone remember the name of the show? I can't remember a single thing about that show other than the Cocoa Marsh ads.

The show was called Super Circus and Claude Kirschner was the ringmaster.

I think that's an earlier show. The one broadcast by WOR (Ch. 9) out of NYC was called Terrytoons Circus.

In Phila. & the Delaware Valley, Cocoa Marsh was advertised on "Popeye Theatre" with "Our Gal Sal", Sally Starr. WFIL channel six. Sally did live spots between the cartoons. She is now 86, & lives in Atco, NJ.

Cocoa Marsh also brings back memories for me with kids singing Marsh, Marsh, Cocoa Marsh. It was Bosco and Fox's U bet in my house because the big turn off for me was that I always associated Cocoa Marsh with Marshmallows and I never cared for them. Seems I missed out.

Just looked at this old thread...I remember Cocoa Marsh was a sponsor on a very old kids show from the early 50's: Pat Michael's Magic Cottage...I think that's where I first heard of that great chocolate syrup..We're using Bosco again, since it is carried by all supermarkets around here...MUCH thiicker tan Hershey's!

The show was on WOR in NY (Channel 9). It was called, I believe "Claude Kirshner's Cartoon Circus. Clownie was a hand puppet with an incredibly irritating voice. Cocoa Marsh was the first of the major syrups to have a pump so I wanted my mother to get it but she refused because we were a Nestle's Quick family. Soon after that Bosco, which sponsored Officer Joe Bolton's Three Stooges show on Channel 5 (WNEW?), also came out with a pump. My mother did buy that a couple of times. Thinking back to the Kirshner show, I imagine it might have been the cheapest set in television history. He was basically in a telephone booth with one stationary camera and the circus ring was about 18" in diameter.

LEETHEBARD, you hit on a good one in Cocoa Marsh ! It was the only way I drank milk as a kid since I hated white milk. It's too bad that the Taylor - Reed company didn't keep this product going, it was superior to the other brands. From what I have read, the company just didn't want to modernize and keep up with the complications of advertising and merchandising. I also e-mailed Kellog's about the possibility of bringing back Kellog's Concentrate cereal but they said consumer demand does not warrant its production.

This old thread never dies...I only wish Cocoa Marsh would have lived as long. I still buy Bosco, but my taste buds don't remember if today's Bosco is the same formula. I hope it is. I just hate it when a new concotion tries to pass as a classic brand...Today's coke with corn syrup...today's KFC chicken...rtc...etc. At least we have our memories of Cocoa Marsh.

Don't think I ever tried Cocoa Marsh. I liked Nesquik as a kid when they were still just calling it Nestle's "Quik". I bought some last week and it had a really artificial flavor to it.

I tried Bosco a few times after hearing George Costanza talk about it on "Seinfeld" and just never liked it.

Have loved Hershey's since I was a kid and still do though I am currently mourning the loss of their WHOPPERS line of malted chocolate syrup. A friend of mine who works for Hershey's confirmed to me that it is no longer in production.

My all-time favorite has to be Fox's U-Bet. The grocery store in my building sells it for $4.99 but Economy Candy on the Lower East Side has it for $2.99. Score!

But Cocoa Marsh must have been an NE "thing"; it never made it as far west as Pittsburgh. And I'd certainly know as I had to have chocolate in my milk - Hershey's, Bosco, Nesquick, or, in a pinch, Ovaltine.